Raum & Zeit
Space
Karabalgasun is located on the western bank of the Orkhon River in the Orkhon Valley. Several archaeological sites, of Turks and Mongols (with their capital Karakorum), are concentrated in the valley since the region was considered to be a sacred place.
Most parts of Karabalgasun’s ruins are hidden under the steppe’s surface nowadays, but especially the walls of the area supposed to be the seat of authority shape the topography with its impressive height of nearly 12 metres.
Time
When the Second (East) Turk Empire collapsed after the assassination of the last major East Turk ruler, Bilge Khagan (734), the great Uighur Empire took its place. In the Ötükän Grove, in the ancient sacred imperial centre of the Xiongnu and Turks in the Orkhon Valley, 'the centre of the world', Kutlug Bilge Khagan founded the Uighur capital Ordu Balik, also known today as Karabalgasun ('black city/ruin'), around 744/45.
The Arab Tamīm ibn Bahr al-Muttawwi'ī calls Karabalgasun the "city of the king" around 821 and describes it as a "large city, rich in agriculture". Around 840 the city was conquered by the Yenisei Kirghiz and at least parts of it were destroyed. There is no archaeological evidence of a later settlement. A Mongol-period burial in the HB1 area, discovered during the MONDOrEx excavations, and written sources (and the geographical proximity to the ancient Mongol capital of Karakorum) indicate that the ruins of Karabalgasun were known to the later Mongols. However, no further use of the site is known.
With the attack of the Yenisei Kirghiz, the Uighur Empire, the second major nomadic empire on Mongolian soil, came to an end. Many of the fleeing Uyghurs went to Sinkiang (East Turkistan), where they founded new petty kingdoms and city-states, such as Qočo, where art flourished.